Pets at Home: double digit growth
Their Q1 FY21 trading update, covering the 16-week period from 27 March to 16 July 2020, highlighted that the last eight weeks of the Quarter had seen sales momentum returning across all areas of the business, reflecting normalisation of shopping habits amongst customers as well as the re-instatement of services and permitted procedures across our Retail and Veterinary operations.
This momentum has continued across both our Retail and Veterinary operations during Q2 FY21, delivering double-digit LFL growth in customer sales into and through the eight weeks to 10 September 2020.
This is testament to several factors, not least the inherent resilience in our pet care model and the underlying pet care market. We continue to benefit from the adaptability of our operations to changes in customer behaviour and preferences, our continuing investment in omnichannel capacity and customer acquisition channels, and the clear advantages of our unique owner-managed First Opinion veterinary model.
Although COVID-19 continues to create a number of material uncertainties around the trading environment, including the risk of a second lockdown, based on trading year to date, and as a consequence of the sustained strength in performance we have seen, we now expect full-year underlying pre-tax profit to be ahead of current market expectations1. Our balance sheet and liquidity remain strong.